Delilah ~ Woman of the Week

Delilah is such well known character even though her story is found in only one chapter of the Bible.  She was the third woman in Samson's life - the woman of Timnath whom he married, the harlot of Gaza, and Delilah.  "Samson had been more than once brought into mischief and danger by the love of women, yet he would not take warning, but is again taken in the same snare, and this third time is fatal." (Matthew Henry)

Verses:  Judges 16:4-20

Background – parents, husband, children, siblings
We know nothing of Delilah's background, only that she was from the Valley of Sorek.  John Gill said this location was "near the village Zorah, from whence Samson was.  Whether she was an Israelite, or one of the daughters of the Philistines, they now being the rulers of Israel, is not said; most likely the latter, as say Ben Gersom and Abarbinel, since the lords of the Philistines were so intimate with her, and were entertained in her house, and she showed more respect to them than to Samson."

It's a sad thought that Delilah might have been an Israelite.  Even if she wasn't, she was raised near the Israelites, but had no interest in their God. 

What is she most known for? Victories? Defeats? How can I be like her? How can I avoid being like her?

Delilah is known for one thing - helping the Philistines bring down Samson.  The Bible says that Samson loved her, but not one time does it say that Delilah loved Samson.  Delilah loved Delilah.

Matthew Henry said this about the three times Delilah pressed Samson for an answer, "In the making of all these experiments, it is hard to say whether there appears more of Samson's weakness or Delilah's wickedness. (1.) Could any thing be more wicked than her restless and unreasonable importunity with him to discover a secret which she knew would endanger his life if ever it were lodged any where but in his own breast? What could be more base and disingenuous, more false and treacherous, than to lay his head in her lap, as one whom she loved, and at the same time to design the betraying of him to those by whom he was mortally hated? (2.) Could any thing be more weak than for him to continue a parley with one who, he so plainly saw, was aiming to do him a mischief."

Did she reach a place when she needed to reset?  If so, did she?  For good or evil?
I believe God gave Delilah opportunities to reset.  After watching Samson break lose three different times she still would not give up.  "She pressed him daily with her words — Though disappointed and mortified, this vile woman resolved to persevere; and conscious how completely he was enslaved by his passion for her, she assailed him with a succession of blandishing arts, till she at length discovered the coveted secret."  (A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments by Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown)

We don't read Delilah's name again.  She got her money, Samson was taken by the Philistines, his eyes gouged out and forced to grind in the prison house.  Judges 16:27 says, "Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport."  I have to wonder if Delilah was in that number.  It was lords of the Philistines who paid her, so I think she may have been there, one of those who made sport of Samson for the last time.  But God had the final say, "So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life."